


Forward Moving Once More

by Merfilly



Series: To Build A Future [8]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Death Fix, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-06
Updated: 2011-10-06
Packaged: 2017-10-24 08:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/261470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With Cybertron slagged, the Decepticons take new stock</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forward Moving Once More

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Canonical Hatchlings
> 
> 2\. DotM Novelization's ending used to jump from

Scion was placed with the Combaticons, leaving Starscream's spirit to decide hastily where he wished to be. The hatchling was his future, but he needed as much data as he could acquire on Megatron and this latest scheme as he could. That was the only reason, he swore in his spark, that he wanted to follow Megatron at all. It had _nothing_ to do with shock at Cybertron's sad shape. It was enough to make him give a last look toward Scion, already stalking Swindle with an intent to demanding nourishment, and hastily leave before the door closed.

He hated the sensation of passing through material objects, which was one reason he had not just waylaid a fellow Seeker and taken over their casing. Even the temporary push into Thundercracker's frame, to have a shell around him for the warp, had been distasteful to him. When Scion was of a size to be useful, having been trained and coerced into brilliance, then Starscream would make that permanent step into being whole again. For now, he avoided closing doors and did not let anything occupy his space.

Megatron entered his chamber, followed by the ghostly presence, and flicked a command at the far wall, which brought up the same view they had from the command deck. Megatron stood in front of it, talons flexing, mapping out the planet over and over, trying to see what was completely lost, and what was merely broken, twisted. Starscream took up a place just to his left, studying it as well. So many cities, including most of the world that was considered civilized, had fallen. As Starscream watched, there were red pulses visible from space in amongst the molten side of the planet; magma still flowed then.

"The moons are more problem than boon," Megatron commented, just as Starscream was getting to the same conclusion. It made the specter look at his lord, studying him. This entire new move of Megatron's, toward peace and rebuilding had been shocking to the Seeker, until he dug deep into ancient memory banks. There, Starscream had known a mech who wanted to reshape everything to match desires that had been simpler at the time.

"You'll have to move their orbits out further, so they do not pull the magma tides so hard," Starscream said, irritated that Megatron could not hear his suggestion. He looked around for anything he could affect, finally discovering where Megatron's data pads were. Those were so simple, with such basic processors. With a wicked smile on his features, he claimed the uppermost one with a touch of his ethereal hand in its components, taking control of the processor, and letting his own brilliance write itself out in formulae for activating the moons' boosters. The data for safer orbits took Starscream a slightly longer time to spill out, as he had not looked at the console to read the data the _Nemesis_ was pulling in, but soon, he thought he had the new point of stability written out. He saved the data in the simple device, and then focused as hard as he could on making the data pad fall from its stack. It took so much energy to affect the physical world like that… and no sooner had the device fallen than Starscream felt his presence be swept away to the anchor point of the hatchling.

"Pits!" he cursed as his form incorporated, though far less substantially, near where the hatchling was gnawing happily on Swindle's hand while the Combaticon demanded his gestalt help him.

`~`~`~`~`

The clatter of the data pads made Megatron scan the entire chamber before putting the fall down to the tremors still shaking the ship from its warp-journey. He walked over to straighten them, so Scion would not damage one when he came in, and noted that one was flashing with a priority message. The warlord flicked it on to read the message, and his optics narrowed on seeing the science that was written at a level few could handle without a more complex processor than any data pad carried.

The message originated on the pad, though, and no amount of testing it could prove otherwise. With a growl, Megatron took the pad to his main computer, plugging in the formulae to a probability generator. All data points were plotted, and bit by bit the model rendered, until Megatron could see that one set was for activating the moon's boosters, long since deemed unnecessary, while the rest of it was for plotting out safe distance. The model played out, and showed Cybertron quieting in its magma eruptions. Megatron's voice echoed in the chamber as a purr of delight, even as he remained curious just where such formulae had come from.

Soundwave's intellect did not run toward such science. Shockwave was indubitably deactivated, and had rarely displayed any interest in astrogation and its related sciences.

Starscream was gone. Megatron knew that with the blackened pulse of his own spark as well as he had known the moment Optimus Prime ceased to function. And unlike with his brother, there had never been a new pulse to suggest Starscream had found his own way back to a sparked existence. Yet the science of the pad's formulae reminded him of that young genius who had been violently opposed to a regime that had forced him and his bonded into the service of an uncaring military instead of allowing them entrance to an academy.

"Always a failure to me, Starscream," Megatron growled, resenting his second's deactivation all over again. He opened a communication line to Thundercracker, voice growling out orders. "Ready two teams to penetrate the moons' defenses. We have work to do."

`~`~`~`~`

"Will this work?" Skywarp asked aloud, taking the clang upside his helm with a solid good cheer from his mate.

"Shut-up, would you; I hate remote piloting as it is," Thundercracker told him, finishing the last adjustments to Beta-Moon. Alpha-moon was settling as well, under Soundwave's team's guidance. There had been a momentary panic when the shifting had precipitated an new magma storm on the molten side of the planet, but Hook had argued it was to be expected, and such things would need time to taper off. His team was eying the twisted, broken side of the planet with something akin to fervor in their optics, which satisfied Megatron.

"Orbits stabilized," Soundwave announced.

"Two full lunar revolutions will be needed to be certain," Hook reminded Megatron.

"Agreed. Spend the time reframing the hatchlings; they need to begin learning useful skills." Megatron was quite looking forward to Scion's reframing, now that he had a starting place concerning Cybertron. Survivors found on the moons had given first hand accounts, and would provide even more of a work force. Perhaps, Megatron mused, this was the final crucible his race had needed, to forge a civilization truly worthy of ruling the galaxy.

"As you command, my lord," Hook said, his own thoughts turning fondly toward Longarm and the special frame awaiting his ward.

`~`~`~`~`

"How in all the PITS can an entire brood refuse to have wings?!" Thundercracker demanded of Hook. "You tampered with them!"

"On the contrary, Thundercracker; I am as surprised as you are!" Hook said, tried to wriggle free of where the volatile Seeker had slammed him. "As high as the Seeker coding was in all of them, it is shocking that only the one designated Scion has begun wing creation."

Hatchlings went through many frame adjustments. In order to be strong enough to leave the sacs, they had to convert some of their nourishment to an exo-suit over their protoform. Often, this was followed by a rapid reframing into actual armor, but the Decepticons had been lacking resources to do so until just before the jump to Cybertron. However, those first sets of armor were considered to be 'blanks', with only basic coding that would then be activated by the sparks within the hatchlings to taking on new forms. Scion, as expected, had been doing nothing but recharge and take in nourishment, reshaping the armor frame to take on the gliding wings of a young Seeker. The rest of the brood had given minimal changes to their armor, forming tools and structural improvements more in keeping with Constructicons.

"Both of you cease to fight," Megatron growled as he entered, Scion held in his arms against his chest. The gleaming silver of the Seekerling's armor was so blatantly familiar to Thundercracker that he could do nothing but look away. Especially as non-war colorations filtered out to the tips of the wings and heels. Starscream's own clone, that one, and it unnerved Thundercracker. "It is clear that the brood responded to the needs of our race, as the communal reaction to Cybertron raced through us all more than loud enough to affect their nanites. We'll turn this sacrifice of the brood's individual talents toward our future. Hook, begin working through them, determining gestalt teams. Thundercracker, you and your Seekers will be too busy to train any Seekerlings. All of you must begin flights over the planet, determining structural soundness, survivors' locations, and resources." Megatron clicked in binary at Scion, and the Seekerling swiftly scrambled up and over to cling to the warlord's back instead. This allowed Megatron to reach out and clasp Thundercracker's arm, drawing him close enough to bore his optics into the other's. "Our future is riding on your command of that fractious lot," Megatron hissed. "Do not fail me."

For an instant, Thundercracker bared his dentaplates at his leader and lord, ignoring the pressure of those talons on his arm. "I serve Cybertron, and you so long as you do," he growled fiercely, full of his own pride.

Megatron clasped the other arm too, then threw his head back and howled with laughter. "Sometimes, you show me why he chose you." With that, he shoved the Seeker away, chuckling when Scion hissed at Thundercracker too, before walking out.

"Slagging insanity," Thundercracker mumbled.

Hook did not disagree.


End file.
